Moralia in Job 1289

42. The synagogue, at first secretly against God, afterward openly reared up. The ostrich lifts its wings on high, when the Synagogue contradicts its Creator not, as before, by fearing, but now by openly fighting back. For passing into the members of the devil, and believing the man of lying to be God, she is exalted on high against the faithful in proportion as he glories that he is the body of God. She who despises not only the humanity of the Lord, but even His very divinity, mocks not only the rider, but also the mount of the rider. For, the unity of person being preserved, it may be understood that the Word of God then mounted the horse, when He fashioned for Himself, within the womb of the Virgin, a flesh animated by a soul.

Then He mounted the horse, when He subjected to divine worship, by creating it, the human soul that presides over its own flesh. For the divinity took up the flesh with the soul as mediator, and through this held at once the whole rider, because in Himself He bound not only that which was ruled, but also that which ruled. Judea, therefore, taken in the snare of seduction through the coming of the proud Antichrist, because she despises that our Redeemer was humble among men, mocks the rider; but because she contradicts His divinity in all things, she likewise mocks also the mount. But our Redeemer is one and the same both the horseman and the mount of the horseman; and when He came into the world, He showed forth preachers strong against the world;

and when at the end of the world He endures the deceit of Antichrist, He supplies strength to those contending for Him; so that when the ancient enemy is loosed into that liberty of his, soon to be ended, our faithful may receive strength the greater in proportion as they fight against the adversary set loose. Whence here, when the ostrich is described as lifting its wings, and mocking the mount and the horseman, straightway the memory of the strong preachers is substituted, and it is said: